A character generator is known from German Auslegeschrift No. 2,701,328. In this disclosure data items are respectively stored in the data storage unit together with interlinking bits which indicate whether after reading out a data item from the data storage unit, the next successive stored data item is to be read out of the data storage unit or whether the data item to be read out involves that of the last area of a character to be formed, so that after the reading out of this data item the addressing of the data storage unit has to be done with the are address of the first area of the next succeeding character. Here the number of storage locations in the data storage unit must correspond to the product of the character supply of different characters to be formed times the number of areas per character, so that, also taking into account the additional interlinking bits required, a large storage capacity of the data storage unit is required.
A character generator for controlling a dot matrix character output unit as a function of character code words is also known from West German Pat. No. B1,118,121, which includes an address converter formed by relays which emits area addresses, and a data storage unit addressed by this and formed by a diode matrix, where all the area addresses are formed by the address converter, and a number of data items equal to the area supply of different areas is stored in the data storage unit. Since areas equal to one another often occur in different characters and even within the same character, so that the area supply of different areas is considerably smaller than the product of character supply times number of areas per character, this solution results in a considerably lower storage capacity of the data storage unit than in the character generators previously known, and while the required expense regarding the address converter is increased, a lower total fabrication cost for the character generator is required.